and county of san francisco. i can't think you for all the great week all of you have done to keep the tradition alive, and we look forward to working with all of you to celebrate another 31 years in the future of asian american heritage. thanks very much. [applause] >> good evening. i want to echo what our city attorney said. he is an honorary asian american. his son goes to the chinese american school right here in friday. i was just thinking today. not only of the challenges that we face, but the challenges that our ancestors have faced in the fast. it was only 130 years ago that the san francisco board of supervisors passed a law that outlawed wooden launledriss. it just so happened that all of

them were owned by chinese. one landryman was an immigrant and spoke little english, but he decided to challenge that law. he lost before the board of supervisors. he lost in front of the superior court. he lost in front of the court of appeal. he kealed all the way to the california supreme court and lost there. he went to the court of last resort, and that was the united states supreme court. he had the courage, the stamina and the belief to bring his case all the way to the united states supreme court, and he won. his name was yip wo. pluzz >> if there is any one thing we can learn from his example, it is that we have to stand up for what we believe, and that is what he did.

of course we have an elementary school named after him in san francisco, but i think it is people like him that we really owe the legacy and the great accomplishment that we are celebrating today with three members of the board of supervisors and our president. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jeff. he added a little substance to this day. let's continue on and get to the good stuff here. let me tell you something about our next performer. he is a 17-year-old senior at sara togethera high school. for -- four years ago he learned how to play the chinese bamboo flute. he mastered the art and skills of playing five other wind instruments. he is a competitive chess player, a math me tigers and a

published poet. please welcome him. [applause] ♪

♪ ♪

♪ [applause] ♪

♪

[applause]

>> asian america has talent. that was amazing. we still have more for you, too. now i would like to introduce you to our special guest speaker tonight. he was born and raised right here in san francisco, and he's the current president of the o.c.a. clrks is the organization of chinese americans. that is a national civil rights advocacy organization with 80 affiliates across the country. he recently retired from his things as vice president of security for u.p.s. he is the first asian american to achieve the goal of this position at the executive live of vice president with that global company, after which he served 37 years. he is now recently retired.

let me tell you something. therapy corporate headquarters is in atlanta, georgia, and before coming out here, i worked in atlanta, georgia, and every event, a lot of the asian events that i emceed, i would go there, and there he was. this guy has been so active in the community. today i'm back stage getting ready, and in walks ken lee. so please let me introduce to you a good friend of mine and a great person, and a great friend of the asian american community, mr. ken lee. [applause] >> well, thank you very much for that glowing introduction. yes, that's right. born and raised right here in san francisco. i have to tell you a couple of things here.

it was not quite what you see here on the stage today back when i grew up here. back when i grew up, we celebrated the first asian police officer. think about that, how far back that goes. we celebrated the first asian bus driver. so think how far back that goes. these are some of the paths that we have crossed, and we have made such gains. today it makes me so proud to see the number of supervisery positions, and elected and appointed officials as well. so celebrate a heritage and to celebrate our community is wonderful. one day i hope to see an asian mayor of san francisco. i think that is going to happen soon as well. born and raced here in san francisco. a graduate of lowell high

school. it was a great city to grow up in. i have to tell you a quick story here. when i went to elementary school when it was called washington irving, i thought the rest of the world was like that, because we were 97% chinese, all from the same province in that elementary school. in my world, it was like this is the way it is. when i got to high school, it dropped down to 33%. then i said this doesn't look right here. then i worked to the work world. i was recruited at u.p.s. a guy said would you like to get a job? we said who? he said with u.p.s. >> we said who is that? >> this is 38 years ago. and they have done their job of diversity of hiring people back when it was not popular for doing the diversity work that

companies do today. it is great to be here today. o.c.a. is a great asian advocacy organization who was instrumental in partnering with other organizations to get the asian heritage month. i think you heard earlier it was one week to a month. it was a great time to be involved. o.c.a., a 35-year organization was in the forefront of getting those things to happen. this year we are going to have our convention, the o.c.a. convention, and i didn't plan this. it was selected before i became the president. but it is going to be right here in san francisco april 6-9. i encourage you all to come. i think it is going to be a great event. we have invited the three secretaries of asian decent to come out -- descent to come out. but any way, it is wonderful to see such a great turn out here

today. i appreciate the time to address the group. i just want to say one thing, and he touched on it a bit. every time he turned around, he saw me out in the asian community. volunteering is the key. i am probably speaking to the choir here because a lot of you are important veers, but it is an important part of giving back to the community and being a good citizen in america here. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, ken. and by the way, ken will be back this summer for the o.c.a. national convention. that is august 6-9 in san francisco at the st. francis hotel. there is much more work for asian pacific american groups to do, as ken mentioned.

i just want to point out that there is this new movie out called dragonball z. it is based on a primary character who is an asian kid. but in the movie they did not cast an asian kid. so there is still a lot of awareness that needs to be done out there, especially in a lot of high-profile situations. now i would like to bring claudine back out here to make our next presentation. >> thank you. every year the asian american

celebration committee presents what we think is the highest honor that we would like to give to an individual or an organization that has achieved exemplary impact in our community. there were years we selected to honor three 100-year-old asian americans for their life-long achievements. this year the committee decided to honor an organization that has brought impact on the entire asian pacific community, not just select ethnic groups because we have 50-some ethnic groups in the community, but an impact on the entire community. i would like to ask members of the committee to join me for the presentation of this award. please join me here.

we've decided that as we kick off the celebration of ace martin pacific american heritage month, that the award would go to the donor program. they were inspired by the deaths of two asian patients who really needed stem cell transplants. at that time there were only 123 asian donors on the registry. because of the work of friends and family to help these two individuals, the number was increased to over 2,000 within a couple of years. unfortunately, there were still no matches. so a group of individuals were so inspired by the need that they decided to form this organization, and today the work they have done not only benefits asian americans in the san francisco bay area, but in the entire country.

i would like to ask the executive director to come up to the stage for this award. [applause] [applause] >> first i would like to thank the asian pacific american heritage committee for this honor. we are very honored to receive this. i would also like to introduce to you rudy law, who is an

outreach coordinator for the program. she works tirelessly in the community every day, and i would like to have her speak on behalf of the asian american donor program. [applause] >> good evening, everyone. i am really honored to be here on behalf of the asian american donor program. first of all we would like to thank the judges and the committee members for giving this award to us. and we would also like to thank the person who nominated us for this award. he is a very generous gentleman who donated his bone marrow to one of our patients. the donor program is a 20-year-old nonprofit organization that helps leukemia and other blood cancer patients to find their bone marrow matches. over the past 20 years we have recruited over 130,000 donors. it seems like a big number, but

it is not enough. in the registry in the united states there are seven million registered don't years, and only 7% is asian american. because bone marrow is matched based on ethnicity, it is difficult for asian americans to find a match. if you haven't registered as a donor yet. take five minutes to do so. all you need to do is fill out a form and give a cheek swab sample. you don't even need to give blood. if your cheek sample matches, we will do another test to make sure you are the best match. so please take five minutes of your time and register today. we will continue our efforts to serve the community. thank you. [applause] >> all right. let's tinsel brating asian

pacific american heritage month with a group from seattle, washington. please welcome them. [applause] ♪

[[note] singing in foreign language [note]]

[[note] singing in foreign language [note]]

♪ ♪

[applause] >> thank you. that was the traditional music and dance troop from seattle, washington. at the conclusion of this event, we will have a reception upstairs in the green room. please make sure you get one of these tickets. i will explain it to you quickly. >> there are eight little box. each time you get a sample ling of food, they check off one of the boxes. after they check off your eight

boxes, you write your name on the back here and you can drop it in the bowl for our raffle. and the prizes included will be tickets to some surrounding restaurants have supported us tonight. we want to give special thanks to our coordinator of the reception beverage providers and especially to all of the beverage providers for their support at tonight's reception. so please giv a round of applause, please. [applause] especially those alcoholic beverages tonight. ok. and now our final performance is by -- we have had a lot of young talent here -- another young talented bay area high school student. she is a sophomore in fremont. she is performing a traditional dance from tamel nadau in the

state of south india. please welcome her. [applause] ♪ ♪